...for he is like a refiner's fire... and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier... and purge (me) as gold and silver, that (I) may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness. I must receive into the depths of my heart the searching scrutiny of God which removes the dross of selfishness, sin and judgement that I may praise His name forever.

About Me A searcher of knowledge and understanding, relevant to my personal journey of faith

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He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou find refuge: His truth is a shield and bucklerPsalms 91:4

Be it ours,when we cannot see the face of God, to trust under the shadow of His wings. C.H. Spugeon

Saturday, February 19, 2011

The Bible Matters ...

The Bible is the revealed Word of God to man.It is the story of God revealing Himself to the people of Israel and all nations.It is a story of love and acceptance; rejection and redemption; idolatry, adultery and absolution; forsaking and forgiveness; the Fatherhood of God and the Sonship of Jesus; and so much more.It is the consolation of martyrs; the consternation of sinners. It is the source of comfort, guidance and direction."Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path ..."

It is the folding of the supernatural into reality. It is the breath of God; the mystical revelation of an infinite Being to finite mankind.

It is power and authority; submission and grace; condemnation and punishment; salvation and reward.

The Bible is unlike any other book in that it is written by God through man.

The Bible is believed to reveal the truth about man and God. The Bible is truth.

The Bible fills the abyss of man's understanding, knowledge and search for relevance, as well as pointing out voids in our psyches. It reveals weakness and restores strength. It is 'wisdom to the foolish and foolishness to the wise'. It is comprehensive, decisive and inclusive while being enigmatic, deductive and inviting.

The Bible reveals the mysterious, mystical and incomprehensible aspects of God and Man and relationship. It is misunderstood and misinterpreted, creating division and confusion. It offers the most clarifying explanations of life, while remaining open for interpretation. It offers opportunity for it's truths to be manipulated and exploited, while maintaining an integrity to absolute truth distinguished from any other manuscript known to man.

The Bible is the Word of God, "... it is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The Word of God provides comfort and consolation while holding man accountable to its mandate of judgement, conviction and execution. It is prophetic in touching lives where they live, making personal discovery and revelation of a man's condition and relationship, possible. This discerning claim of Scripture creates, not just the possibility for healing, for wholeness, a reality.

It is best described as living, for in that description is contained all the nuances of its import into lives, while being insensitive to changing culture, remaining unaffected by expanding knowledge and never being apathetic towards the true plight of man. The Word of God is spiritual, numinous, breathing. The Word of God is an agent of paradoxical contradictions (antinomies) and inconclusive ambiguities (redundancy rocks). The Word of God is beyond the scope of philosophy and reason, it is not of this World, its only intent is to reveal the Divinity of God which is not inherently revealed in nature. The Word of God serves two functions, invoking fear and trembling, while having a tendency to attract, inspire awe and compel. Without the Bible 'What would we truly know about God?'Without the Bible 'What would we really know about ourselves?'

The answers to the question, 'Who is God?' and 'What am I?' are in the Word of God.

"Since, therefore, the most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no further than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most, the probability, of a future state, there is nothing except a Divine revelation that can ascertain the existence and describe the condition of the invisible country which is destine to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body" Gibbon"A whole lot of us go through life assuming that we are basically right, basically all the time, about basically everything: about our political and intellectual convictions, our religious and moral beliefs, our assessment of other people, our memories, our grasp of facts. As absurd as it sounds when we stop and think about it, our steady state seems to be one of unconsciously assuming that we are very close to omniscient." – Kathryn Shulz,Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

Our experiences reveal our needs. We encounter problems and conundrums outside the realm of our wisdom and understanding, obstacles, barriers and walls which are insurmountable. In the darkest of places, when a man's heart fails for the tribulations he is facing, or when his heart and soul are seeking expression for "...the intense feeling of unknowingly knowing that there is something which cannot be seen." that needs to be exalted and worshiped, the Bible gives voice and word.